Five Alternatives for Better Employee Dimension Modeling

Alternative 5: The PathString Attribute

By now you’re probably desperate for a recommendation. Two years ago, a clever student in a Kimball University modeling class described an approach that allows complex ragged hierarchies to be modeled without using a bridge table. Furthermore, this approach avoids the Type 2 SCD explosion described in Alternative #1, and it works equally well in both OLAP and ROLAP environments.